Season of BooksWelcome to our Book ClubBelow you will find the list of books we are tackling for the year.
At the start of each month we will activate the book page where you can read reviews, share thoughts and add to the discussion. Join us in our Season of HOME with a Season of Reading...at HOME |
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a Season of Books
in a Season of Home
April: Year of the Mad King: The Lear Diaries by Antony Sher
Shakespeare wrote a lot during the Plague that ravished his time, but much has been spoken recently about his writing King Lear during quarantine. As the world wrestles with our new present realities we look at how one actor tackled a role written specifically during a time that parallels this moment
May: Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike
A fictitious look at one of the couples in our 2020 Tour. While Shakespeare's play focuses on the son, what is the story behind the widow and brother and their marriage.
June: Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore
Just in time for Midsummer we tackle Christopher Moore's latest Shakespearean homage. This book (which will be released in May) is the third adventure for Pocket of Dog Snogging (Fool and The Serpent of Venice great books as well, but not required). Pocket finds himself in Greece in a rollicking tale of love, magic, madness, and murder, in short: a Midsummer Night’s noir
July: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
As we continue telling our tale of Hamlet on tour through our Jazz Era lenses we wanted to offer another peek at life during the actual Jazz Era. Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and women...some might call it Shakespearean.
August: 1606 by James Shapiro
Who knows what August may bring in our "new normal," but as we tackle our own return to school and end our traditional season we will investigate just what was going on in Shakespeare's world as he was writing Lear, and facing "new normals" in London.
September: Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
Shakespeare wrote a lot of perplexing father-daughter relationships. We'll be peeking at a few in our 11th Season (more on that later), and we'll already have peeked at a fictitious account of his own role as father. This tale, while not officially Shakespearean certainly explores some very Shakespearean topics that we can tackle together.
October: The Third Witch by Rebecca Reisert
As we approach All Hallow's Eve our thoughts turn to the Scottish play, and our reading will as well. Gilly - the half-savage heroine - is a young girl on the edge of womanhood, who lives in a Scottish forest with two older women, scraping a living from scavenging in the woods and robbing the dead on the battlefields of a terrible, endless war. She lives only for revenge against the man and woman who destroyed her young life and drove her to be an outcast: the warrior king, Macbeth and his ambitious queen. Disguising herself as a boy, she finds a way into their castle, just as they prepare to seize the throne of Scotland.
November: Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt
Election Day in November 3 so this month we're tackling leaders who were not so elected. We're not passing judgement on voting outcomes, and we'll strive to be civil in discussion - the book after all is about historic leaders not contemporary (conclusions about modern parallels you choose to make are yours to cherish). Historically though Shakespeare was fascinated by the lust for absolute power and the disasters visited upon the societies over which his tyrannical characters ruled, and his plays help us understand why.
December: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
“Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing of her gallèd eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” - Hamlet
This nonfiction look at the commodity of salt offers us a world history of a rock that exists today, existed for Shakespeare and existed long before. As we come to the end of our year we peek at a mineral that has lasted through time, just as Shakespeare's words have and just as we all will, with ups and downs and tenacity.
in a Season of Home
April: Year of the Mad King: The Lear Diaries by Antony Sher
Shakespeare wrote a lot during the Plague that ravished his time, but much has been spoken recently about his writing King Lear during quarantine. As the world wrestles with our new present realities we look at how one actor tackled a role written specifically during a time that parallels this moment
May: Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike
A fictitious look at one of the couples in our 2020 Tour. While Shakespeare's play focuses on the son, what is the story behind the widow and brother and their marriage.
June: Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore
Just in time for Midsummer we tackle Christopher Moore's latest Shakespearean homage. This book (which will be released in May) is the third adventure for Pocket of Dog Snogging (Fool and The Serpent of Venice great books as well, but not required). Pocket finds himself in Greece in a rollicking tale of love, magic, madness, and murder, in short: a Midsummer Night’s noir
July: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
As we continue telling our tale of Hamlet on tour through our Jazz Era lenses we wanted to offer another peek at life during the actual Jazz Era. Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and women...some might call it Shakespearean.
August: 1606 by James Shapiro
Who knows what August may bring in our "new normal," but as we tackle our own return to school and end our traditional season we will investigate just what was going on in Shakespeare's world as he was writing Lear, and facing "new normals" in London.
September: Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
Shakespeare wrote a lot of perplexing father-daughter relationships. We'll be peeking at a few in our 11th Season (more on that later), and we'll already have peeked at a fictitious account of his own role as father. This tale, while not officially Shakespearean certainly explores some very Shakespearean topics that we can tackle together.
October: The Third Witch by Rebecca Reisert
As we approach All Hallow's Eve our thoughts turn to the Scottish play, and our reading will as well. Gilly - the half-savage heroine - is a young girl on the edge of womanhood, who lives in a Scottish forest with two older women, scraping a living from scavenging in the woods and robbing the dead on the battlefields of a terrible, endless war. She lives only for revenge against the man and woman who destroyed her young life and drove her to be an outcast: the warrior king, Macbeth and his ambitious queen. Disguising herself as a boy, she finds a way into their castle, just as they prepare to seize the throne of Scotland.
November: Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt
Election Day in November 3 so this month we're tackling leaders who were not so elected. We're not passing judgement on voting outcomes, and we'll strive to be civil in discussion - the book after all is about historic leaders not contemporary (conclusions about modern parallels you choose to make are yours to cherish). Historically though Shakespeare was fascinated by the lust for absolute power and the disasters visited upon the societies over which his tyrannical characters ruled, and his plays help us understand why.
December: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
“Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing of her gallèd eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” - Hamlet
This nonfiction look at the commodity of salt offers us a world history of a rock that exists today, existed for Shakespeare and existed long before. As we come to the end of our year we peek at a mineral that has lasted through time, just as Shakespeare's words have and just as we all will, with ups and downs and tenacity.